Modern desktop publishing applications enable a user to readily create electronic documents. One feature available in many desktop publishing applications for creating electronic documents is known as “mail merge.” Mail merge automates the process of creating variable data documents by allowing users to connect to and merge data from a single data source. In utilizing the mail merge feature, data is pulled from a single data source (such as a mailing list) and inserted at marked locations in a document.
One drawback associated with the mail merge feature offered by modern desktop publishing applications is that users often store data (such as mailing lists) in disparate formats and in multiple locations in a computer system. For instance, a user may store one list of contacts as a contacts file which is readable by a contact manager program while another list of contacts may be stored as a spreadsheet file which is readable by a spreadsheet program. Thus, users are often required to assemble data in disparate formats from multiple sources into a single data source to utilize the mail merge feature offered by desktop publishing applications.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the various embodiments of the present invention have been made.